revhard

Yesterday, after not driving the car for about 4 weeks the 1997 C2 would not start. So I went to porsche and picked up a new battery and made a LITTLE mistake. When hooking the battery up again I connected the terminals backwards.

The car started to blow smoke from the vents and filled the cabin quickly with smoke. Now, with the car hooked up correctly the car starts, but the ABS light and airbag light comes on. Then I left it run for aboutg 10 minutes and drove it for awhile. After driving for awhile the battery light came on along with all of them on and off occasionally. The cars lights would then dim and the car seemed like it was going to die.

I know this was the dumbest thing to do. Does anyone have any ideas on what to do? Is there some sort of safety fuse that gets blown when this is done? Did I break the electrical system? Any responses would be great... THis is driving me nuts!

bbeckmann

Wow... I thought my drilling a hole underneath the rear seat fiasco was bad.

If you saw smoke, something met it's demise. I'd go to your mechanic pronto. What'd porsche charge you for a new battery anyway?

Greg Fishman

Sell the car quickly. The car is now bi-polar.

Mr Michael B

I would guess at the least, you may need alternator and or regulator repair.

Your DME sure did not like it either.

I have a pal who did this to a 1977, he had to replace his coil, alternator / regulator, ignition (it was a Permatune kit) and his speedometer.

All of it was munched. Sorry.

Radar

I agree with Greg. You should sell the car and get one that works with the battery hooked-up either way.

Anir

Revhard,

I hope not too much got fried.

I had a friend once who decided to become more of a DIY-er after seeing me work on my cars for years. I told him to start with something easy like changing the radiator coolant. He pulled the drain plug, drained the fluid, and refilled the radiator. Drove about 10-15 miles until the engine overheated and seized. As it turned out, he had not replaced the drain plug and all the added coolant was delivered straight to his driveway floor. He had to replace the engine.

I'm pretty sure that was the last time he ever worked on his own car. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="frown.gif" />

mike cap

Revhard,

I agree with Greg and Radar.... Sell the car. You'll be chasing electronic gremlins for years.

Either that or call your insurance company and get them to spring for a week of Porsche shop work to go through EVERYTHING electrical and electronic in the car. Other than the car being under water, I can't thing of anything more damaging to the electrical systems in this car than what you did....

By the way, how did you manage to do swap the polarity??

Mike Cap
1997 C2
Arena Red

Don Magee

First, the disclaimer: I know nothing about matters electrical. Having said that, our car did not suffer any such permanent problems from the same mistake.
A while back, the battery in my wife's Lexus died and the dealer wanted to charge her an outrageous amount for a new one. Like an idiot a told her, and the dealer, that such a price was outrageous, and I took the car to Sears. My wife balked at Sears, and i said, " Hey, it's a damn battery, any idiot can put in a battery." Sears crossed up the terminals. Many fuses blew. I was in a suit, but rolled up my sleeves and the one competent guy there teamed up to help me swap out fuses and relays. It has been fine since(knock on wood). Needless to say, that was the last time I offered any input on her car care or repair. If Lexus has fuses to prevent such a disaster, you would think Porsche would as well. I hope so, for you. Best of luck.

alex_95_cab

Don't ask me how I know this <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> but here is what you are going to have to change.

1) A bunch of fuses to fix your electronics (air-bag, radio, speedometer). These are inexpensive and the total should run about $150 or so including labor. None of your electronics should be fried, just the fuses.

2) Your wiring harness is most likely fried where the alternator connects. So you'll need a new wiring harness and depending on how long you had power running perhaps a new alternator. (Approx $1200 including labor ??)

You shouldn't have any other problems after this.

Also as per an earlier thread once the new batter is in your idling will be a bit screwy for a while, but will eventually settle back to the correct level.

Good luck and we can email if you have any other questions.

BTW +/- is reversed on the German battery versus cars like Toyota, Honda etc.. , so it is possible to do this.

DJ

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by alex_95_cab:
<strong>BTW +/- is reversed on the German battery versus cars like Toyota, Honda etc.. , so it is possible to do this.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Really?! All the batteries I've ever seen have the positive connector marked with a "+" and the negative connector marked with a "-".

From now on, I'm going to look for batteries that have both connectors marked "+/-", just to be safe.

Radar

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by alex_95_cab:
<strong>BTW +/- is reversed on the German battery versus cars like Toyota, Honda etc.. , so it is possible to do this.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Ah, that explains a lot. And, if that is the case, all the more reason why he should sell his P-car in favor of a Toyota, Honda or whatever.

JimBob Jumpback

Hay hall bubbas,

Ol JimBob dun haded a prollem wit hiz battrey likey dat wunce. i dun had me a aston heeelee an it dun hadd positively ground. well dat kar dun started ta havin prollems cuz da lites day startin ta fliker an da radeeo kept cummin on an off by itzelf an evertime it rayned dat kar wunt run at awl. so ol jimmyrobert he dun putted a gnu battery in it. now cuz it being positively grounded, i dun hooked da positively side to da dirt and da negatory side to both o da wirez an dat kar dint do know better wit dat new battry dan da older wun. dose lites still be a flikkerin an dat radeeo be goin crazee awl da time. i finerly solded dat kar ta sum yankee. onlee good thiyng bout dat kar waz dat aint no weedz dun grosed unner it cuz awl day erl killt dem off.

sow JimBob be thinken dat yall shool rewired yur porch kar fer positively grounded cuz it be soundin ta me likey yall aint got no common cents an awl us inginears know dat ground and common iz da sayme thing.

Yur Fren,
JimBob

pdemar

Many thanks to alex_95_cab's post, as it saved me about $2700 in electrical repairs exactly as described in the post caused by a body shop reversing the polarity on my old battery. After sharing the cause and effects described in this thread, they took responsibility for paying the Porsche dealer bill. Car runs great now. The dealer tried to tell me it was due to age (car only has 25k) and reversing the polarity would cause these problems. This forum has just paid for itself for a lifetime.

Thanks again!!!

Paul

PS: I paid the dues earlier this year, but don't know why it doesn't show.